The Journey, a Missouri church that started with 30 members less than five years ago and now has 1,300 members, is taking heat from Southern Baptists because one outreach method of the church involves holding discussion groups at a St. Louis area brewpub.
The Journey bills itself as an interdenominational church, but it has links to the Missouri Baptist Convention. The Baptists are upset because beer flows during the Theology at the Bottleworks monthly meetings. The Rev. Darrin Patrick, founder of The Journey, said the sessions are used to discuss everything from racism to embryonic stem cell research -- and to invite new people to attend Sunday church services.
The Southern Baptist Convention says the use of alcohol is against church practice. At the 2006 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention the group passed a resolution backing its traditional stance against the making, sale or consumption of alcohol. The Journey is housed in a former Catholic Church the group purchased and renovated in 2005 with the help of a $200,000 loan from the Baptist organization. The Missouri Baptist Convention says it would not have backed the loan had it known about the brewpub meetings.
5 comments:
Leave it to the Southern Baptists to rain on someone's parade. Maybe The Journey should associate themselves more with the Catholic Church. Heck they're already on the right path...Then they wouldn't get so much lip about a little wine or beer.
I say this as a former Catholic growing up in a small southern town populated with mostly Baptists.
Theology at the Bottleworks is actually a monthly event.
As an atheist who grew up a Fundie Southern Baptist, I have to admit to really enjoying this. This is the exact issue that first opened my eyes to the bull that they preach, which lead to me examining them for other bull and eventually leaving the faith completely.
How many people can say the love of good beer drove them out of religion?
As a transplanted New Englander who's lived in the South for almost 10 years I always get a kick of this stuff. If the truth be known the whole Prohibition movement began in my home state of Maine in the 1840's. Pre-Civil War Southern newspapers raved about the "Maine Law" and what a good idea it was. Prior to this pretty much everyone drank beer and spirits as a metter of course as water was often unpure and carried diseases. Not only is the anti-alcohol stance illogical, it's a "Yankee thing."
There is nothing wrong with a person who decides not to drink for religious or other reasons. It just amazes me when they either want to take away our right to have a drink or they try to position themselves as superior to those who enjoy a cold one.
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